Metro East Sun

Illinois State Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) sees the list of potential victims in the property tax scandal now dogging Gov. J.B. Pritzker as being endless.

“Everyone and their budgets, including our fire and policemen, are impacted by this because it’s our tax revenue that pays for everything,” Meier, the longtime representative for the 108th District, told Metro East Sun. “If it turns out that he’s been trying not to pay taxes of his own while trying to raise them on everyone else, it would really be sad.”

WBEZ Radio reports that federal investigators are in the midst of a six-month probe aimed at determining just that. Pritzker and his wife are reported to be among the family members under review for allegedly ordering workers to remove all the toilets from one of their multi-million-dollar homes as a way of saving around $330,000 in property tax fees. In having the home declared “uninhabitable,” the couple manipulated the assessed market value to plummet by more than $5 million 

State House Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) | Photo courtesy of State House Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville)

Prior to the start of the federal probe, which commenced just before Pritzker took office, Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard blasted the whole plot as a “scheme to defraud.” While Pritzker, through his attorney Marc Elias of the Perkins Coie law firm has denied all wrongdoing, Meier views the entire episode as just another black eye for the state.

“Look at the history of Illinois’ governors, a lot of it is not great,” he said. “My Focus is I just want to see Illinois start to thrive again. We have everything for that happen. If we can just let businesses grow again, we could grow ourselves out of most of this.”

Pritzker added that neither he nor his wife have been contacted by law enforcement about to the case.